Two pyrometallurgical processes are currently in use for the treatment of low iron laterite. In the rotary kiln-arc furnace process the ore is mixed with coke, preheated, and partially reduced in the rotary kiln and the hot kiln product used as feed to an arc furncace smelting step to produce ferronickel and slag. In the other commercial process, the ore is melted in an arc furnace and then mixed with molten ferronickel and molten ferrosilicon to yield an enriched ferronickel and slag.